Overview

#1 New York Times bestseller! In a high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands. “Mr. Mercedes is a rich, resonant, exceptionally readable accomplishment by a man who can write in whatever genre he chooses” (The Washington Post).

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a ...

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Overview

#1 New York Times bestseller! In a high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands. “Mr. Mercedes is a rich, resonant, exceptionally readable accomplishment by a man who can write in whatever genre he chooses” (The Washington Post).

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.

In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with two new, unusual allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.

Mr. Mercedes

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

It begins with nightmarish violence: A stolen Mercedes plows through a long line of the unemployed at a Midwestern job fair, killing or injuring dozens. Months later, retired cop Bill Hodges receives a threatening anonymous letter from someone who describes himself as the perp, promising to kill again on an even more maniacal scale. Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes pits two malcontented men with nowhere lives who are both determined to regenerate themselves—but in radically different ways.

The New York Times Book Review
- Megan Abbott

King is clearly having fun, and so are we…For the first half of the novel, King tickles our anxieties, his detective engaging in a classic cat-and-mouse game with the killer. But you can feel him wriggling against the hard-boiled tradition, shaking the hinges. Soon enough, in ways large and small, he rejects and replaces the genre's creakiest devices…But it's the larger genre deviations that make Mr. Mercedes feel so fresh. At their purest, hard-boiled novels are fatalistic, offering a Manichaean view of humanity. For King, however, dark humor extends beyond the investigator's standard one-liners, reflecting a larger worldview. Killers and detectives make mistakes all the time…and coincidences play a far greater role than fate. Mr. Mercedes is a universe both ruled by a playful, occasionally cruel god and populated by characters all of whom have their reasons. One man can do only so much.

The New York Times

Washington Post

"On one level, Mr. Mercedes is an expertly crafted example of the classic race-against-the-clock thriller. On another, it is a novel of depth and character enriched throughout by the grace notes King provides in such seemingly effortless profusion. It is a rich, resonant, exceptionally readable accomplishment by a man who can write in whatever genre he chooses."

Christian Science Monitor

“Think of Mr. Mercedes as an AC/DC song: uncluttered, chugging with momentum, and a lot harder to pull off than it looks. . . . King has written a hot rod of a novel,perfect for a few summer days at the pool. Mercedes-Benz commands drivers to demand ‘the best or nothing.’ In pop-fiction terms, that motto still applies to Stephen King, too. With apologies to AC/DC, the highway to hell never felt so fun.”

Miami Herald

"A taut, calibrated thriller . . . The majority of the book is merciless and unforgiving, and the scariest thing about it is how plausible the whole scenario is."

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Seattle Times

“No one can create a villain quite like King. . . . [A]ll the elements come together in a very public, potentially explosive finale (with a surprising post script). King fans may find themselves furiously turning pages long into the night.”

BookReporter.com

“Along book that doesn’t feel like one. King’s pacing is perfect here . . . [Y]ou should read Mr. Mercedes. You’ll be checking your automobile’s back seat for months, if not years.”

Booklist

USA Today

Los Angeles Times

“A showdown between good and evil that characterizes the best of King's work, regardless of genre.”

Tampa Bay Times

“King may have left out the supernatural in Mr. Mercedes, but his gifts for creating thoroughly believable characters and thrumming suspense are in full play. He keeps raising the stakes and ratcheting up the violence, and just when you think everything is settled there's one spine-icing little turn on the very last page.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“King creates such vivid characters—people you can picture yourself drinking a beer with or inviting over for lunch. So when he puts them in great peril, and that includes Jerome’s family and pet dog and the Mercedes’ owner’s family, it’s a race against time . . .”

Boston Herald

“Hartfield is sensitive, sympathetic and one of King’s most realistic characters. He is a lot like Norman Bates from Psycho, in the worst ways imaginable.You can add Hartfield to the list of great King villains, alongside the shape-shifting monster Pennywise from It and the hypnotic vampire Kurt Barlow from Salem’s Lot.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“A fast-paced cat-and-mouse game between Hodges, the motley group of unlikely heroes that he assembles, and the Mercedes Killer.”

Raleigh News & Observer

“As always, Stephen King draws very real people and scenes straight out of life as we know it . . .”

People Magazine

“A trimmer-than-usual King, but that doesn't mean he skimps on the suspense and spine-tingling chills.”

Bookpage

“With Mr.Mercedes, [King] demonstrates that he can still rock a pure genre novel like nobody’s business. . . . a thrilling example of King’s boundless imagination.”

Cemetery Dance

“A war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.”

Onion AV Club

“. . . barrels toward a memorable conclusion. King’s work has almost always gotten lost in translation on the big screen, but his tense, propulsive, ultra-fast-paced climax here seems like it was written with the movie in mind.”

Library Journal

01/01/2014
Bill Hodges is bumping around, barely registering his retirement, when a maniac in a stolen Mercedes repeatedly drives into a line of unemployed folks waiting in the gray dawn of a gray Midwestern city for a job fair to open. Eight people are killed and 15 injured. Hodges immediately enlists two allies to help him find the killer, who so loved his little taste of death that he's planning to blow up thousands. The novel, described as King's first hard-boiled detective tale, has an unsettling ripped-from-the-headlines feel, though the author has said that he started work on it before the Boston Marathon tragedy.

Kirkus Reviews

2014-05-07
In his latest suspenser, the prolific King (Joyland, 2013, etc.) returns to the theme of the scary car—except this one has a scary driver who's as loony but logical unto himself as old Jack Torrance from The Shining.It's an utterly American setup: Over here is a line of dispirited people waiting to get into a job fair, and over there is a psycho licking his chops at the easy target they present; he aims a car into the crowd and mows down a bunch of innocents, killing eight and hurting many more. The car isn't his. The malice most certainly is, and it's up to world-weary ex-cop Bill Hodges to pull himself up from depression and figure out the identity of the author of that heinous act. That author offers help: He sends sometimes-taunting, sometimes-sympathy-courting notes explaining his actions. ("I must say I exceeded my own wildest expectations," he crows in one, while in another he mourns, "I grew up in a physically and sexually abusive household.") With a cadre of investigators in tow, Hodges sets out to avert what is certain to be an even greater trauma, for the object of his cat-and-mouse quest has much larger ambitions, this time involving a fireworks show worthy of Fight Club. And that's not his only crime: He's illegally downloaded "the whole Anarchist Cookbook from BitTorrent," and copyright theft just may be the ultimate evil in the King moral universe. King's familiar themes are all here: There's craziness in spades and plenty of alcohol and even a carnival, King being perhaps the most accomplished coulrophobe at work today. The storyline is vintage King, too: In the battle of good and evil, good may prevail—but never before evil has caused a whole lot of mayhem.The scariest thing of all is to imagine King writing a happy children's book. This isn't it: It's nicely dark, never predictable and altogether entertaining.

The New York Times
- Megan Abbott

"Pays off exuberantly... Surprising and invigorating."

Associated Press Staff

"Classic Stephen King. Creepy, yet realistic characters that get under your skin and stay there, a compelling story that twists and turns at breakneck speed, and delightful prose that, once again, proves that one of America’s greatest natural storytellers is also one of its finest writers."

Library Journal

05/15/2014
After having written over 50 horror, sf/fantasy, and suspense novels, King pens his first hard-boiled detective thriller. A maniac accelerates a Mercedes into hundreds of unemployed applicants lined up at a job fair—killing eight and wounding 15. Det. Bill Hodges, a streetwise inspector, searches unsuccessfully for the Mercedes killer. After he retires, the bored detective receives a crazed note from the lunatic driver, Brady Hartfield, who promises to strike again in an even more diabolical manner. Hodges's talented and eccentric assistants unravel Brady's convoluted computer records revealing when he intends to drive a wheelchair strapped with eplosives into a concert arena jam-packed with screaming teenyboppers. VERDICT King's customary use of bizarre events and freakish characters does not provide a credible basis for this detective novel. Also, he encumbers the plotline with insignificant details, causing his thriller to plod along rather than pulse with the tension and suspense often characteristic of detective fiction. [Prepub Alert, 1/1/14.]—Jerry P. Miller, Cambridge, MA

Related Subjects

Meet the Author

More by this Author

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Revival, Mr. Mercedes, Doctor Sleep, and Under the Dome, now a major TV miniseries on CBS. His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller as well as the Best Hardcover Book Award from the International Thriller Writers Association. He is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

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I love Stephen King. That has not changed in the 20+ years I've

I love Stephen King. That has not changed in the 20+ years I've been reading his work. What also hasn't changed is his ability to suck me into a story and bury me so deep that I have lost all sense of time and spatial awareness. I become one with the story and nothing else matters. I can't think, I can't eat, I can't sleep until I am finished living the lives of the people in the book. There is nothing like being immersed in a world that has been created by Mr. King. It is an experience that one does not ever fully return from or fully leave behind. He has perfected his craft so well that each story, each character breaks off a bit and embeds it into your soul for you to mull over, dwell on, and contemplate until your demise. I am happy to let him have those spaces to deposit his leavings as I feel a sense of completeness after each one. It's like he has found missing pieces and is putting them back where they belong. I don't believe that there are any other authors out there that have that affect on me but it doesn't stop me from searching. I almost feel like there is a subliminal message in each of his books that speaks to the innermost part of me, like a nagging voice, &quot;You will read my next story. You will because you need to. You need the drug that I supply.&quot; It's kind of how I think of tattoos as having a chemical in them that make them addictive. No matter the pain, the time, nor the money lost, as soon as you have the first one, you want another. And every time you get another one, it happens again....the craving is there for another. That is what Stephen King is like for me.

57 out of 71 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 4, 2014

Again!

I am only in the second chapter and yet I am sucked in once again by Kings work. His ability to find what makes each of his characters take root from the start is amazing. 'The devil is in the details' is an old phrase but it never holds truer than when I pick up a King story. Thank you, Mr. King, for what you have done once again to perfection.

31 out of 39 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 7, 2014

Very good

Very good book , but be aware , there are no supernatural elements in this one.

28 out of 29 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 7, 2014

King never disappoints

Stephen King is a fabulous story-teller and writer. He nails this mystery without any of his trademark horror or supernatural touches. I would eagerly read ANYTHING he writes.

27 out of 28 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 5, 2014

I believe I'm in the second chapter, though I cannot be sure bec

I believe I'm in the second chapter, though I cannot be sure because I lost track of a couple of things while I was reading: eating, time, my place in the book. I can say for certain that the book is entertaining and, from the looks of it, on its way to becoming one of my favorite King books.

16 out of 21 people found this review helpful.

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No spoilers!
I finished this book in a marathon overnight read

No spoilers!

I finished this book in a marathon overnight reading session, interrupted by only a four-hour nap before I got back into it. (Thankfully my husband is also a reader and fully supported my endeavor). For those who avoid Stephen King because they don’t like horror novels, never fear – this one isn’t a horror novel. There are some gory and gruesome scenes, but they’re human-inflicted, not supernaturally-inflicted . Mr. Mercedes is more a detective thriller novel, if I had to classify it under a specific genre. (For me, the genre is “Stephen King” and that’s good enough for me – I love the man’s writing no matter what section of the bookstore each new release ends up in).

A brief synopsis, for those unfamiliar: Mr. Mercedes tells the tale of a cat-and-mouse game between recently retired detective Bill Hodges and the “perk” in one of his rare unsolved cases - the Mercedes Killer, Brady Hartfield.

In the early morning hours of April 10, 2009, hundreds of people are lined up outside an auditorium waiting for a job fair to begin when a Mercedes plows into the crowd. Eight die; many more are injured. The driver escapes.

Bill Hodges, along with his partner, was the detective who investigated the case, but Hodges retires before the case is resolved. Depressed, lonely, and suicidal, one day he receives a letter in the mail. This letter is from the Mercedes Killer, and suddenly Hodges finds a reason to live again – to hunt down the man responsible for the deaths of those desperate job seekers before he can kill again.

The killer is introduced early in the story, a very disturbed – and very careful - man named Brady Hartfield who lives with his alcoholic mother. Another case where “the monster walks among us,” his coworkers (he has no friends) don’t suspect that the man they see every day is in fact a cold-blooded killer who’s already planning his next big event. Brady wants to up his personal body count, and is willing to die to do so. But first, he wants to bring Hodges down, either by driving him to suicide or, failing that, to kill the retired detective himself.

Hodges must determine the identity of the Mercedes Killer and stop him before he kills again – without being killed himself.

Stephen King is the master of suspense, and in this novel proves that he doesn’t need malevolent ghosts or evil vampires or telekinetic teenagers to keep the reader flipping the pages. I was hooked from page one, and was once again amazed at King’s ability to tell a captivating story that draws the reader in. King is great at dangling small little hints and tidbits of information to the reader, giving you just enough that you HAVE to keep reading to find out the rest of what happened. Brady Hartfield alludes to other incidents that occurred in his life, but the full story isn’t provided until much later in the book. (I couldn’t go to bed until after I’d reached that point in the novel. I just couldn’t – I HAD to find out the whole story).

The point-of-view shifts between Hodges and the killer, a technique that in the hands (keyboards?) of less capable writers can be confusing. King makes it look easy. The reader is “treated” to a front-row seat into the life and mind of the demented Hartfield, who obviously could have benefitted from some strong anti-psychotic medication. It’s also terrifying how realistically the character is portrayed (I was reminded of Ted Bundy in particular, with his surface charm that fooled so many people for so long). You may never look at your neighbors and co-workers in quite the same way again.

One line in particular struck me as I was reading this novel: &quot;He returns his attention to her, a woman in her mid-forties who's not afraid to sit in bright sunlight.&quot; It’s a simple line, but to me it highlights King’s talent at observing life and using those observations to SHOW his characters instead of just telling us about them. Sure, he could have said “He saw that this forty-something woman is obviously confident in herself and her appearance,” but instead he takes something that all women past the age 30 or 35 know – that direct sunlight does nothing to improve the appearance of older skin – and uses that to show us the character’s poise and self-confidence.

It feels almost sacrilegious to say anything negative about a Stephen King book, but… the foreshadowing in this one was a bit heavy-handed at times. Worse, there were also a couple of instances where it was flat-out misleading (in my humble opinion). Without giving too much away (I hope), here’s a for example: if it’s said that a character is going to regret an action or a lack of action later in the story, then that action/lack thereof should be significant and have a major impact on the development of the rest of the story. Instead, a couple of times those bits of foreshadowing were just half-lies without much importance to the story, and never really came to fruition. I feel like they were placed in the text only to keep me reading. It worked, but I feel just a little bit betrayed by the whole thing. That being said, it’s still without a doubt a five star book, and I’ll still gladly sacrifice another night of sleep when Revival is released in a few months.

Finally, after (or while) you’re reading this one, make sure you check out Under Debbi’s Blue Umbrella – there’s not a whole lot there right now, but it’s a neat little add-on, and I’m curious to see if more is added to it after more people have had time to finish reading the novel.

14 out of 25 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 9, 2014

I am past half way through the book and have liked it so far. N

I am past half way through the book and have liked it so far. Not too bad of an opening for Mr. King's trek into detective novels. Although there is no supernatural stuff in it, Mr. King still delivers certain aspects of story lines that only he can. I would highly recommend this book. I enjoy all sorts of crime and mystery novels by various artists and if Mr. King decides to write another book in this genre, I will buy it right away.

9 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 4, 2014

i like reading this books.so amazing

i like reading this books.so amazing

8 out of 19 people found this review helpful.

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PhotoGirlSS

Posted June 5, 2014

Fantastic, as expected.

Fantastic, as expected.

7 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 9, 2014

Another great cat and mouse

If you enjoyed Joyland and 11/22/63 then you will love Mr. Mercedes.

6 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

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MrsRedditAll

Posted June 8, 2014

I am also a Constant Reader and have been since I was 12. I get

I am also a Constant Reader and have been since I was 12. I get that the crux of my addiction/love/faithfulness is the vibe from each story. Picking up a SK book is like listening to a comfortable accent or savoring the flavor of your favorite dish....you just crave it with anticipation and nothing else will suffice. In-between his books I read others...when what I really want is Pad Thai and only have funds for a PB&amp;J. You know? I'm not hungry anymore, but I can't wait to get my hands on some Pad Thai....I don't know how I feel about this latest book. There was something missing. It kinda felt like watching an episode of Criminal Minds or something. I get that not every book gets to be a tome of character development, and maybe I'm just spoiled that way. Its not that it was a bad story, it just didn't feel like a SK story. A decent sit-by-the-pool time-killer. Bring your own PB&amp;J.

6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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RazorlinePress

Posted June 11, 2014

11/22/63 part 2?
The novel starts off with an great premise¿a k

11/22/63 part 2?

The novel starts off with an great premise—a killer drives a Mercedes into a crowd, kills 8 and maims several others, and mysteriously gets away. The retired detective who had been assigned to the case gets a letter from the killer, taunting him, trying to goad him into the suicide the former cop has already been considering. But he only draws the former lawman out of his depression and sends him in pursuit.

The GoodThe writing is great. Vivid characters and a nice amount of foreshadowing. I found myself realizing certain things were going to happen and dreading when they eventually came. The banter between the detectives was refreshing. I even liked Hodges and his teenaged neighbor (his name escapes me at the moment). The whole thing had a moment-by-moment, Law &amp; Order feel.

The BadThe bad guy. I understand the necessity to have clear delineation between good and bad, but the bad guy was over-the-top bad. I’m not objecting to the use of the ‘n-word’, but there was a ton of it when he referred to anyone black. It makes me feel like a fuddy-duddy to write it, but for me, that was too much. I would have gotten some just to make it clear this killer was a racist too, but sheesh.

Also, this story was very reminiscent of 11/22/63. It just had a feel of pursuing the killer who always seemed just out of reach. I did like the story, actually, a lot, but it never seemed to become its own entire story. Maybe because that book is just so fresh on my mind, but I find myself wanting to go back and listen to that again (I’ve already listened twice), but it would feel pointless to listen to this book a second time.

And How Did I Feel About That…I liked this story, despite the bad. King’s writing alone and incredible ability to set a scene and a mood really carries this beyond just being rehash of another, superior novel. If you read it, you’ll like it, but you’ll appreciate it more if you read it before 11/22/63.

Gerald RiceAuthor of Where the Monsters Are

5 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 10, 2014

Good read

Now, I can get some sleep.....maybe. You will love his quirky characters. He is the master of making you love the people in his stories. Even the sick mo-fos. He drives you through the action like you are holding on for dear life in the back seat of a Mercedes - hell bent. What a ride, Mr. King! Thank you.

5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 7, 2014

C+

Not his usual genre, but it is still well written and hooks you in. Great villain

4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 13, 2014

Mr. Mercedes

This is not your typical Stephen King. If you are looking for horror fiction this is not it. Excellent book. Very suspenseful, Interesting characters and a fantastic plot. What makes this book scary is knowing that there are people like Mr. Mercedes out there. Definitely a must read!

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 11, 2014

Loved it!

Couldn't put it down. Enjoyed the characters, became engrossed with the plot, thrilled with the plot twists. Stephen King remains my favorite storyteller.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 3, 2014

WOO TERRORISTS(SARCASM )

Thats pleasant

3 out of 40 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted July 28, 2014

Thank you Stephen King for another fantastic read!
Not the typi

Thank you Stephen King for another fantastic read!

Not the typical King book in that this was a pretty straightforward mystery read. It was, however, written by the master of suspense and he does it beautifully.

For those who prefer the more paranormal reads by King, this may not be for you. This is one of his more realistic reads -- though truly frightening in its own way. King is a master at creating bad guys whether they are &quot;real&quot; people or maybe not of this world. This is the story of a retired cop trying to solve one of the few cases that was unsolved when he left the department. It is a great thriller with a terrific cast of characters, including a teenage boy that is full of humor. It is a fantastic read that kept me on the edge of my seat to see if they could catch him in time. Loved it!

I must take just a moment to address the comments of certain reviewers who have the audacity to call Mr. King a &quot;racist&quot; because one of his characters uses the &quot;N&quot; word. Don't know if you people have ever written something actually worth reading, but it is called character development. King was giving you an idea of who his killer is. Part of who he is is a stereotypical bigot! What better way to convey that then to use that horrible word? To actually presume that King is a racist because his bad guys are bigoted............?????? Listen people, 2 + 2 does NOT equal 5!!! If that kind of stuff bothers you, please do not read any more of his stuff so I do not EVER have to read one of your reviews again -- K? I like to know who I am reading about. If he is a bigoted a**hole, then I don't think he uses the words &quot;African American&quot; to describe a person of color. You are SUPPOSED to not like that character!!!!! It is a fictional story with fictional characters, and I personally LOVE the character development that Stephen has ALWAYS had. Well, enough of my rant...........

Thank you so much for another sleepless night Mr. King. Once again, I could not put it down. Can't wait to see what is coming out of that brilliant mind next!

-- SPeeD

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted July 21, 2014

No

This is a general cop book. Anyone could have written it. Its not a Stephen King book. Just not worthy at all.

2 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 22, 2014

Finished most of the book this weekend. Excellent story - a pag

Finished most of the book this weekend. Excellent story - a page turner. As always, well developed characters and vivid details that draw you in to the story. A little more saucy than previous books, with a little rougher language, more slang, and more items/topics that some may find objectionable - especially one of the villain's relationship's is disturbing. I definitely see Jim Carey playing the villain in a movie version.Would read a second time.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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